Update and a question

[StudyShy]

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Well, my first semester into premedical land is going fast! Scholastically, I'm doing fine with 22 credit hours (general biology & physics, and the rest graduate work in nurse midwifery and European history).

My children are still doing fantastic, and somehow my house is still sort of clean. Just don't look in they laundry room! lol

Since I plan on applying in two years, I need to choose which kind of EC's that I want highlighted. Before children, I found volunteering fun and did so frequently. Now with children, naturally, my focus has been on my family and I find it difficult to participate in anything other than work and school. One thing that I still do is gather supplies for the homeless shelter such as diapers, shampoo, blankets, shoes, and etc. So that is one thing!


Question:

1) Does work count? I work full time as a nurse in an emergency room.

2) Would the 600+ nurse midwifery clinical hours in the clinic and L&D count as EC since this is what I will be doing for part of my degree?

3) Does tutoring/mentoring peers in classes that I am currently taking count?

4) How important would research be in the application process? Since I am a nontraditional student, research would be a little harder to come by.

5) Although not exactly published, how is coauthoring on popular blogs viewed upon? I write frequently about my experience with hyperemesis on birthing sites.

These are things that I am thinking about doing. Comments are welcome.

1) Host some "lunch and learns" at my hospital. Pretty much I would choose a topic to teach and then present to nurses, social workers, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, physicians, and any other person who wants a free lunch. I got the go ahead from education for one topic already (improving patient-physician communication). This would be a great project since I would already be at work.

2) I thought about shadowing the a physician who is hyperemesis gravidarum friendly and see how he treats his patients for a day or two.

3) I have a fertility awareness web site since I am a totally freak when it comes to anything OB related. Any suggestions on how I can turn this into a an EC that is worth mentioning? This would be a great project for me since I can do it at home after the kidlets sleep.

4) I thought about starting a premed club at my community college.

5) I was offered a contingent position to visit lower income women before and after they have their babies. This would be something that I am very interested in, however the program is very disorganized. I would also be the only person doing it in the entire county, and I wonder if I would be getting myself into too much.

 

[badb100d]

Question:

1) Does work count? I work full time as a nurse in an emergency room.

2) Would the 600+ nurse midwifery clinical hours in the clinic and L&D count as EC since this is what I will be doing for part of my degree?

3) Does tutoring/mentoring peers in classes that I am currently taking count?

4) How important would research be in the application process? Since I am a nontraditional student, research would be a little harder to come by.

5) Although not exactly published, how is coauthoring on popular blogs viewed upon? I write frequently about my experience with hyperemesis on birthing sites.

These are things that I am thinking about doing. Comments are welcome.

1) Host some "lunch and learns" at my hospital. Pretty much I would choose a topic to teach and then present to nurses, social workers, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, physicians, and any other person who wants a free lunch. I got the go ahead from education for one topic already (improving patient-physician communication). This would be a great project since I would already be at work.

2) I thought about shadowing the a physician who is hyperemesis gravidarum friendly and see how he treats his patients for a day or two.

3) I have a fertility awareness web site since I am a totally freak when it comes to anything OB related. Any suggestions on how I can turn this into a an EC that is worth mentioning? This would be a great project for me since I can do it at home after the kidlets sleep.

4) I thought about starting a premed club at my community college.

5) I was offered a contingent position to visit lower income women before and after they have their babies. This would be something that I am very interested in, however the program is very disorganized. I would also be the only person doing it in the entire county, and I wonder if I would be getting myself into too much.

Let me try to tackle your questions:

1) Work definitely counts - this is great clinical experience.

2) Since the midwifery clinical hours are part of your degree they won't count, but you can definitely mention them in your personal statement if you had a particularly meaningful experience.

3) Tutoring/Mentoring certainly counts and is a fantastic EC since medicine is very much about teaching.

4) From what I've read on the forums research is not mandatory, although the top tier schools that are research heavy do like seeing it. With your nursing background I think most adcoms will realize your medical ambitions are very patient centered and won't be surprised if you are lacking research. However, should an opportunity come along I wouldn't be shy about taking it. Remember, research does not need to be bench, clinical is good too so you may have more opportunity than you realize.

5) If your blogs aren't controversial I don't see the harm in mentioning them especially since they have a medical bent to them.

Now for your plans:

1) The lunch and learns would be another nice EC and fits in with the whole teaching aspect of medicine. If you have the go ahead then enjoy presenting them.

2) Shadowing is fine especially if the physician does work in something you are particularly interested in (it seems so). Since you have extensive nursing experience it's not a necessity though.

3) Like the blogs, the website is fine so long as it's not controversial. I think when it comes time to do applications I would lump the blog and website together under the "other" category since they are a similar concept and with all your activities you'll need more spots free.

4) Starting a club - 👍

5) Will the position be in addition to your work as a nurse in the ER? With this point I have to be bit less enthusiastic. You already have tons of great EC's, taking this position on won't necessarily help your application more, but the additional work/stress could cause your grades to suffer. IMHO, if you do all the things you've mentioned, plus school and being a parent you will already be over extended. If this is something you absolutely feel really passionate about, I won't tell you not to take it, but I'd probably drop or commit fewer hours to another activity in order to accommodate it. I say this because you have a very ambitious plan and you already mention that you find it hard to do more than work and school. The key thing is to protect your GPA and to focus on a few EC's that are really important to you. Remember, it's quality of over quantity.

 

[StudyShy]

Thank you for the quick and detailed response! I was a bit worried that I would be lacking in the EC area when a lot of the things that I am currently doing can count.

I will definitely be doing the "lunch and learn" gigs since this is a great opportunity to practice public speaking (which I suck at), and I know that my manager would be extremely proud and supportive. Tutoring is a given since I can't seem to escape it; I guess that I'm a little too nice to say "no" to people. I think that I am going to pass up the "moms and babies" position since it would be just too much. This is hard since there are a lot of new mothers who need help.

How did you know that my web site is controversial? j/k

Also,there will be another 1-2 week midwifery trip to Guatemala soon. I would love to go, and this would be a great experience.

Some more questions:

1) So, in other words, would what I have mentioned be enough for the typical med school...like they would realize that 3 kids (3 and under), 20+ credit hours, 40-hour work week is a lot? So, by maximizing on things that interest me while combining with work and school when appropriate would be the best approach and I probably shouldn't worry too much?

2) How far in the past can we go back? Although GPA sticks with you forever, does this also apply to all the EC activities that I did like five years ago? I sort of think of this new part of my life, but hey if I can count paramedic training and other the other crazy stuff that I did when I was young, I'm going for it!

 

[nontrdgsbuiucmd]

hello,

have kids + started med school fall 2009, and went thru app process 2x (worked out great not having to move for med school though!).

Here's what I learned; after 1st unsuccessful round of apps, I spoke with lots of admissions folks!

-volunteer work for many schools is highly looked upon or required. Volunteer work = unpaid work. All schools required some medical exposure too, but they do, in general, require unpaid volunteer work. I had around 320 hrs total volunteer work on the app for the 2nd go around, and that was considered more than enough.

Schools seemed kind of cold in that they did not care about professional accomplishments, or time constraints due to work + parenting; they just cared about the round peg/round hole thing, eg gpa, ec's, mcat score > cutoff before they'd even look at an app. I guess that makes sense given # of apps they get, but it still was kind of a shock that the many diverse experiences that I had didn't matter unless you also met basic criteria.

-every school had slightly different priorities; would suggest that you speak with your top choices to see what they value (maybe shadowing, maybe leadership, maybe research, etc) and gain those experiences. I gained some research experience via connecting with a couple pre-med teachers; not sure if this impacted admission, but I gained a couple dozen hours' lab work & added to the Aamcas app. good luck!

 

[badb100d]

I think you have lots of interesting EC's, the only bases I think you have to cover are what nontrd mentioned meaning community volunteering and if you can research. You didn't mention whether or not the tutoring/mentoring you do is paid or not, but if it's unpaid I would certainly highlight that. Maybe there is a way you can parlay your lunch and learn experience into some unpaid gigs for the community at large so that your audience is not made up of only healthcare professionals, but patients and/or people living in the area served by your hospital. Those are just some ideas I had that could get you some brownie points for volunteerism that is community focused without adding on another major commitment. As for research, while not an absolute as I said before, it won't hurt you and may help you be a more attractive applicant to a wider range of schools.

I'm still in the app process so I can't speak with great authority, but I think nontrd is right in saying that you need to have the basics covered. I'd say to you to go out and enjoy the EC's you are doing and remember to continue to do your best academically and crush the mcat to have your best chance at success. Good luck!

 

[StudyShy]

The mentoring is upaid and has been equally to about 8 hours a week. The girl lives near the hospital and comes over on my lunch break to study physics. I've been going over to her house on Tuesday and Thursday nights. I've also been helping people in pathophysiology and general biology. The girl from physics needs A LOT of help, but I think that she would make a great physical therapist if given the chance. She sees a regular tutor, but she needs help beyond that. I love teaching, though, so I'm not bothered too much by lots of questions and going back to basics. Do you actually have to list hours on the application (meaning I should kind of keep track of time spent)?

If I count undergraduate time mentoring people over the last couple of years, hours would add up really quickly since students were always at my house since they can't seem to get writing papers in APA or basic statistics.

For the lunch and learns, I hope to be able to provide CE credits to at least the nurses so it takes a little time to get everything in order. I probably wouldn't get paid for those even though I would be at work. They don't like to pay overtime like they used to. I could teach some community diabetic classes...or breast feeding classes maybe if I talk to the right people. That would be very interesting!

I'm mainly focusing on two schools (so that I don't have to move). The third school within an hour away would probably want research experience, and I probably won't even apply there. Still, I'm going to keep my ears open to any research opportunities.

You guys have given a lot of great ideas! 🙂

 

[badb100d]

Since you have 2 or 3 schools firmly in mind I would definitely go ahead and try to speak with them regarding what they are looking for. Now might be a bit busy given that it's prime application season, but spring would probably not be a bad time. The guidance they give you will be better than the stabs in the dark we are making here!

The unpaid mentoring/tutoring sounds great, they do ask for hours, but it's in the format of hours/week and the the time period. Alternatively you could enter the total hours in the description area. So do what's easiest for you.